Fresno State challenged by free speech group after lecturer’s suspension over Kirk
A free speech advocacy group out of Philadelphia sent Fresno State president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval a letter last week urging the university to end its investigation into critical comments made by a lecturer the day conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while on a Utah college campus.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a non-partisan, nonprofit First Amendment group, said in its letter that comments made by lecturer Barri Brennan at the start of a Fundamentals of Public Communication class were clearly protected by the First Amendment.
“Universities have a legitimate interest in ensuring classroom discussion is not disrupted,” the group said in the letter. “But that interest does not justify punishing a professor for a fleeting comment in the classroom. This is especially true of political expression, where free speech protection is ‘at its zenith.’”
The university confirmed it had received the letter. It has not commented on the investigation by its faculty affairs department. Brennan also has declined comment to The Fresno Bee.
Brennan was placed on paid leave shortly after the university became aware of the comments, a video of which was posted to social media. “You want to know what I think? It’s too bad he’s not dead,” Brennan said on the video, apparently recorded between the time Kirk was shot and news circulated that he had been killed. “Gonna put my political views right out there. And that’s exactly what I thought. He’s just shot? I was like, he’s not dead? I don’t even know who he is. Just a description of him. Don’t care.”
Brennan was teaching five classes in the department of communication. Those classes are now covered by other department lecturers.
The university won’t say if Brennan will return to the classroom this semester. She is under contract through May 31, 2027, and paid $33,918 to teach five classes per semester, according to the contract, obtained by The Bee through a public records request.
No one has said publicly who recorded the video and posted it to social media. If it was a student in Brennan’s class, that student also could be part of the university’s investigation.
According to the class syllabus, all electronic devices (cell phones, laptop computers, tablets, iPods, mp3 players, AirPods) should be turned off/silenced and put away prior to the start of class, unless the instructor has given permission to use them.
That is underlined at the end of a section on classroom deportment. It starts, “Students are expected to respect the rights of other students in the class. The exploration of controversial ideas is an essential component of this class. Students who are not respectful will be asked to drop the class. When presentations are in progress, students arriving late are asked to wait outside the classroom until the presentation is complete.”
It is unclear if Brennan gave permission to use electronic devices in her class. A student in the class told The Fresno Bee that Brennan often would engage students in informal discussion prior to starting class. That, the student said, is when Brennan made the comments about Kirk.
In its letter, FIRE stressed that the Supreme Court has long held that speech is protected even if it may be offensive to others or deemed hateful or uncivil. That includes vitriol about public figures and engaging in rhetorical hyperbole that may reference violence.
“A university may justify some restrictions on a professor’s expression when its interest ‘in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs’ outweighs the employee’s interest ‘in commenting on matters of public concern.’ But the mere desire to maintain a sedate academic environment does not justify limitations on a teacher’s freedom to express (themselves) on political issues in vigorous, argumentative, unmeasured and even distinctly unpleasant terms. Thus, fleeting classroom comments that violate no law and that deal with issues that are currently gripping the entire country cannot be grounds for institutional censure.”
FIRE asked Jiménez-Sandoval for a substantive response and to end the investigation and restore Brennan to her position by Sept. 30.
Haley Gluhanich, senior program counsel with FIRE campus rights advocacy, said Friday the Fresno State president had not yet responded to the letter.